Independent & Repertory
When he was just two years old, Redwood (Ryan Grantham) watched as his parents broke up. While his mother walked away, Redwood listened to the radio as they spoke about Jack Nicklaus, and how winning a green jacket at the Masters could change his life. It was then that Redwood knew what he had to do. Beat Jack Nicklaus and win the Masters so his parents will get back together. Eight years later, Redwood lives in Canada with his draft dodging, drug dealing father, and has yet to defeat Nicklaus at the Masters. When his father is arrested, Redwood is...
After Lu Chan (Yuan Xiaochao) saved Chen Village from an army of steampunk soldiers, the villagers have allowed him to learn their Chen Style Tai Chi after he marries Yuniang (Angelababy), the daughter of Grandmaster Chen (Tony Leung Ka-Fai). When Yuniang’s brother returns to the village, he begins spreading the tale of the Mad Monk, who warned the villagers that teaching an outsider their Chen Style Tai Chi would result in their destruction. While the villagers want Lu Chan exiled, he may be the only thing standing between Chen Village and the army controlled by Fang Zijing (Eddie Peng Yu-Yen)....
Marie (Jane Adams) is a middle-aged actress starting to feel the pressure in Hollywood. All the roles she auditions for are going to younger actresses. As she begins looking at her life, and where she is now, her niece Faye (Sophia Takal), who is also an actress, comes to visit. As Marie spends more time with Faye, she shares some of the lessons she’s learned in life, and starts to be more comfortable with the woman that she has become. Joe Swanberg directs, and co-writes with star Jane Adams, the touching and funny film All the Light in the Sky,...
Molly Maxwell (Lola Tash) is a teen without many boundaries. She goes to an alternative school where kids are allowed to choose their own course of study, her parents (Krista Bridges and Rob Stewart) are artsy, permissive types and her friends are misfits who encourage experimentation in all aspects of life. Molly herself is unsure of what to do with all of her freedom, which manifests itself in her difficulty in deciding which elective she should pursue – even after her loopy principal (Richard Clarkin) lays down the law and tells her to choose or flunk. Enter Ben (Charlie Carrick), a...
Dolph (Jack Plotnick) is a regular guy in an irregular world. When he wakes up one morning at 7:60 am to find his dog, Paul, is missing, Dolph embarks on the strangest journey you’ll ever witness. From a workplace where it rains indoors, trees that can change from palm to pine, and a telekinesis master who helps dog owners communicate with their animals, the world of Wrong is just that, wrong. There is no middle ground when it comes to the films of Quentin Dupieux. Love or hate are the only emotions available here. If you enjoyed his previous work,...
Tracy (Julia Stiles) gets together once a month for a couples’ brunch with her friends. This month, she’s bringing her new boyfriend Glen (David Cross) for their third date. Before the quiche is even served, problems between the couples start to appear, leaving Glen feeling rather awkward. As things start to break down and people are about to leave, the friends find out that a dirty bomb has gone off in the city, forcing them to stay indoors. With the apocalypse on the horizon, the group start to realize that their problems could be worse, but that won’t stop them...
Bert Stern: Original Mad Man comes with an almost deceiving title. This documentary follows the career of Bert Stern, a man who took iconic photographs for both art and advertisement, and held the philosophy that he “wasn’t just taking a picture, we has creating an image”. He helped change the image of the advertising world in the early ’60s as it blossomed through its creative revolution. As told by director Shannah Laumeister, who is also his long time partner, the documentary plays out interview-style, with Stern recounting his career and personal life spilling some intimate details but also, it seems,...
Mr. Watanabe, an elderly widowed sociology professor, orders a prostitute. A while later, a beautiful young lady named Akiko shows up at his apartment. Mr. Watanabe fancies himself a gentleman; he has prepared the regional soup of Akiko’s hometown and eagerly offers her a glass of wine. Although Watanabe’s intentions never evolve into anything resembling lechery, Akiko forecloses sexual possibility by abruptly falling asleep in his bedroom. The next day, the always-polite Watanabe offers Akiko a ride to school. After he drops her off, Akiko’s fiancé notices him waiting in his car. Herein comes the big ironic moment: the fiancé...
It’s an iconic photo that we’ve all seen (or seen parodied) at least once in our lives. 11 men, sitting on a girder high above the New York skyline, casually trading barbs, enjoying a smoke and yes, eating their well-deserved lunch. But what’s the story behind the photo? Who are these guys? How can they just sit there without a care in the world, their feet dangling into the abyss? That’s the main question posed by Men at Lunch, an odd little documentary that offers as much cartoonish hyperbole and misplaced importance of its subject matter as it does genuine...
A garbage bag with a paper necklace is thrown out. A blue orchid is scraped of its color. A maggot is distilled into a liquid and imbibed. We’re introduced to Kris (Amy Seimetz) who not long after is abducted at a bar, and fed the worm which leaves her docile and susceptible to a kind of powerful hypnosis. Her kidnapper – simply called Thief – leverages his complete control over her to make her memorize Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, get really fixated on water, and take all her money. She finds herself abandoned as the worm spreads throughout her and...
On her way to work, Stephanie (Michelle Harrison) accidentally hits a homeless man and speeds off. The next morning as she’s heading to work again, she realizes that the man she hit is Mike (Kirk Caouette), a busker who is playing his guitar in front of her office. Overcome by guilt, Stephanie tries to make things right by buying Mike a new guitar but he refuses the gift. This begins an awkward friendship between the two that slowly changes their way of life. Hit ‘n Strum marks the first time for Kirk Caouette as a writer and director, and only...
It’s 1968 and three young Aboriginal sisters (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy and Miranda Tapsell) and their cousin (Shari Sebbens) leave their remote mission in the Australian outback after being discovered by Dave (Chris O’Dowd), a drifter with a love of soul music and an eye for talent, something that the four songbirds possess in spades. Billing them as Australia’s answer to The Supremes, Dave secures the group a gig singing for the American troops stationed in Vietnam. While there, the young women confront the realities of war, coming-of-age and being a woman of colour in a time so very rife...
